There is nothing I detest more than oppression. From my viewpoint, there are three main forms of oppression, that often complement one another: Intellectual, political and patriarchal oppressions.

1. Intellectual oppression is most manifested in religious oppression. The religious authority systematically attempts to confiscate the right of the human mind to think and to choose, [...] either the mind submits to the religious perspective, or the person is immediately condemned as a heretic, a dissident, and ultimately a disbeliever worthy of grave castigation, and millennia of awesome torture in hell.
   
   [...] The focal point to me is that the human mind deserves a nourishing environment to grow and produce in, rather than an intellectually terrorizing atmosphere that inhibits creative expression and critical thought.
   
   On the contrary, Hinduism preaches meditation, good behaviour and non-aggression as the means to unite with the Total Spirit, the Brahma, leaving a wide margin of freedom for the human mind to think, to critique and to choose.
   
   
2. Political oppression is what political regimes tend to practice against the people, the citizens; it includes arrests, terror, instilling fear in the hearts, so as to prevent dissent. To achieve those devious objectives, it creates a sophisticated repression apparatus, police, army, intelligence services, prisons ...etc. This is all to guarantee conformity with, and submission to the will of those in power.
   
   
3. Patriarchal oppression at home, completes the circle. The oppressive father practices his absolute authority, denying his wife and children any right to share in the decision making that affects their own lives and well being. It reproduces political and intellectual oppression, and accentuates them.